Free Republic

With the disintegration of the Soviet Union, everyone breathed easier. Russian communists tacitly, and in some cases openly, acknowledged that Reagan was right about the "evil empire." Religious extreme Marxism followed dinosaurs into extinction. Over a dozen countries emerged from behind the Iron Curtain. With his attack on Ukraine, Putin shows himself as a species of dinosaur. He believes that Russia, with a GDP smaller than those of California and Texas, is a world power that deserves special spheres of influence. He believes that Russia's nuclear arsenal allows him to claim a more aggressive role than that of a normal...

Sub Headline: According to its data, by implementing programs in both nuclear and rocket spheres over more than two decades, Ukraine was consistently nearing all the necessary conditions to create its own nuclear weaponsUkraine could have obtained nuclear weapons within several months, a source in one of Russian agencies told TASS."According to conclusions by Western experts, the Kiev regime was extremely close to creating a nuclear explosive device based on plutonium due to its covert obtainment from spent nuclear fuel stored in the country’s territory. Ukrainian specialists could have made such a device within several months," the source said.

Russian forces are planning to begin public executions in an effort to break the morale of Ukrainians resisting their invasion, according to a European intelligence official who spoke with multiple U.S. news publications. The unnamed official, who spoke to Bloomberg, said the Russian government has devised plans to erode the morale of the Ukrainian people, who for a week now have held out against a full-scale Russian invasion force. The plan reportedly includes cracking down on protests, detaining opponents of Russia, and even carrying out public executions. Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin also tweeted that a European official...

In a video circulating on social media on Thursday, a Russian soldier appeared to claim he and other soldiers deployed in Ukraine were being ordered by their superiors to sign papers retroactively firing them in what may be a move to deny their involvement in the invasion. The Moscow-based Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), which has conducted open-source reporting on Russian involvement in conflicts in Syria and Ukraine, tweeted, “This rare video was filmed by a (non-captured) Russian soldier complaining about losses and harsh conditions. What caught our attention is a claim that they are forced to ‘sign papers’ to be...

"Who'll rid the world of this ranting madman?" asks the Daily Mail. The paper says a "menacing TV address" given by President Putin "bore little relation to reality", including claims Russian forces were fighting to liberate Ukraine from "neo-Nazis".